I know some of you may already including Magic Lessons as part of your offering to kids. Here's an interesting article that talks about the benefits of teaching magic to kids. It's more than just keeping the kid's busy while the parents do something else. Here's the article:

The holding of the pen/pencil by the individual in the video is inappropriate and gets difficult to be improved/corrected with the grown ups. Handling of props which the magic teaches helps to improve the MOTOR skills.

Jonathan Townsend wrote:How would you compare the motor skill work in conjuring to something less convoluted like juggling or pen spinning or even tai chi?

Comparing magic with MOTOR skills does not arise.
The message is to use the various aspects of magic for e.g. handling props etc to develope appropriate/improve/correct the Motor skills. This is a playful/enjoyable approach.

swamy wrote:Comparing magic with MOTOR skills does not arise. The message is to use the various aspects of magic for e.g. handling props etc to develope appropriate/improve/correct the Motor skills.

Okay you've got me confused - as from this post it seemed you were suggesting that magic is a way to improve ones motor skills.

MOTOR SKILL is the most immediate and visible contribution of magic being taught particlularly to kids. Motor related skills are difficult to be developed or corrected in the grown up ages.

IMHO conjuring is simply not appropriate as a skills reinforcer as it also brings some tremendous demands upon the interpersonal and creative skills of the student which can take far more out of a student than what learning tai-chi or even juggling might offer.

? so now we're off motor skills again - and perhaps better served by teaching flower arranging? that's a respectable Asian art form - like calligraphy (*which also uses motor skills ;)) and focuses on recognizing possibilities.

Last edited by Jonathan Townsend on September 29th, 2008, 1:10 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:really - why burden someone with guile when all they need is hope?

I'd be curious to see a study comparing the outcomes of some time spent in theater group doing a production or two compared to learning some magic tricks. Poise and a little bluster don't necessarily require any guile or even a sense of clever. Socialization classes need not teach sociopathy.

One learns more than just motor skills from studying and performing magic. An actor in a play needs: a play, a producer, a director, a stage, props - etc., an audience, stage lighting and perhaps a light technician, perhaps a sound system and engineer.

The typical magician does all that himself/herself. He produces, directs and performs in a magic play he has written himself, using his own props, lighting, sound system and usually doing his own booking to arrange an audience. If he makes his own props, add on design, engineering, construction and art skills. Those just aren't skills taught in the usual acting class, even if they have a full blown performing arts program in the school.

Spellbinder wrote:One learns more than just motor skills from studying and performing magic. An actor in a play needs: a play, a producer, a director, a stage, props - etc., an audience, stage lighting and perhaps a light technician, perhaps a sound system and engineer.

The typical magician does all that himself/herself. He produces, directs and performs in a magic play he has written himself, using his own props, lighting, sound system and usually doing his own booking to arrange an audience. If he makes his own props, add on design, engineering, construction and art skills. Those just aren't skills taught in the usual acting class, even if they have a full blown performing arts program in the school.

for the want of an nail... exactly.

IMHO that pretty much explains how we keep our craft hobbled and get odd looks from those in the theater when we talk about scripting (patter), production design (props) and so forth as if we were somehow inventing things they have had for centuries - and they wonder why we just don't get professional help. ;)

:/

Last edited by Jonathan Townsend on September 29th, 2008, 11:52 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:practice makes perfect - why not teach them Magic(k) too?